Lack of environmental funding

Growing fiscal constraints and competition for ever-dwindling public resources have seen the environment being sacrificed in terms of budgetary allocations for the more pressing demands of health and education. As a result, donor funding is often sustaining most environmental management programmes.

In all developed and some developing countries, 20 to 45 per cent of GDP is transferred to the central government as taxes and other revenue, representing a significant effort to meet the collective needs of society for security and welfare (World Bank 1998). In comparison, global contributions to the United Nations and other international organizations are minimal, even though the need for global political, social and environmental security is growing. As a greater proportion of wealth creation by the private sector is globalized and escapes national taxation, the base of economic activity supporting national environmental and social action, as a proportion of total activity, will shrink. The lack of international sources of funds for environmental protection is one reason why global environmental stewardship is falling so far behind development.